"Do we have souls?"
The question had taken Ajak by surprise. She knew why Sersi had asked her that, after all, watching humans find their soul mates had become the eternal youth's favorite pastime ever since those damn marks started appearing.
It was something completely out of their control, and even Arishem had no answers for her when she asked. Humans simply woke up one day to realize that they had marks on their bodies, where their soul mates were supposed to touch them when they met.
Arishem had said that they shouldn't worry about something so silly and concentrate on the mission. Ikaris had agreed, but Ajak...Ajak was terrified.
"Yes, Sersi" she smiled kindly "we have souls, just different from theirs"
The girl took a moment to think about it, nodding when she agreed with the answer. The prime eternal silently thanked her for no more questions, as she could feel Ikaris' penetrating gaze on her back.
Ajak dismissed the girl gently but quickly, bringing her hands to her chest for a moment, almost protectively. Ikaris waited until Sersi was gone before coming closer.
"You shouldn't lie to her like that" he said bluntly.
"I didn't lie"
"You didn't?" he raised an eyebrow "you know as well as I do the reason she asked"
The woman didn't answer, she just nodded. She knew that Sersi hoped that a mark like that would appear on her body as well. She also knew that Ikaris' annoyance stemmed from fear that this was the case and he might lose her. But that wasn't Ajak's business.
"Don't fill her head with false stories" he said
"I didn't lie" she said again, walking away from there.
She could feel the man's gaze burning her back, but she kept her steady pace, refusing to show any sign of weakness in front of him. It didn't matter how much her hands trembled on her chest.
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"Leave her alone!"
Ajak gasped and sat bolt upright on her bed. Her room was completely dark and she could not perceive any call from Arishem. So it had been another nightmare. Great. It was the third that week.
She couldn't even tell when she'd started dreaming about that voice (hell, she didn't even know if she should be dreaming in the first place), she only knew that she'd been waking up after hearing a voice calling for help, a direct blow to the front and a huge empty in her chest for too long. She had to do something.
"I need to get out of here" she mumbled.
She scrambled to her feet and tried not to look too much at the black mark on her chest. This was the reason why she had not lied to Sersi, the reason why she was growing increasingly uncomfortable with Ikaris' comments about human markings.
She didn't know how, or why, but one night, just a few months after the legend of soul mates had begun to emerge, Ajak awoke to find that she herself had one of those marks, a black spot on her chest.
She tried to understand it, she tried to get rid of it with the magic that the celestials granted her and that she rarely used, but nothing had worked, the black stain was still there, tattooed on her skin. And she had been afraid. She was terrified of what that meant, what others might think of her, but more than anything, she was terrified of endangering whoever she was attached to.
"I don't know who you are" she murmured, placing a hand on her chest "but you're better off away from me."
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